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UN panel meets on Zimbabwe sanctions; China objects
to language

Monsters and Critics

Jul 11, 2008, 20:23 GMT

New York - The UN Security
Council met Friday to decide whether to take action on a draft resolution
that would impose an arms embargo on Zimbabwe and other sanctions on
President Robert Mugabe and his associates.

China's UN Ambassador Wang
Guangya told reporters that the draft's language was 'unacceptable' to him
and his colleagues, whom he did not name.

Russia, Vietnam, South Africa
and Libya had voiced objections to the sanctions, preferring political
pressure on Mugabe to hold negotiations with political opponents to form a
government of unity following the debacle in the presidential
elections.

'As far as the language of the draft resolution is concerned,
we cannot accept it,' Wang said. But he declined to say whether he would
veto if the draft were to be put to a vote.

'We think that it is for
the political parties to enter into a dialogue to discuss and sort out their
differences,' he said.

Other diplomats made no comments as they entered
the council chamber for a closed-door session.

In Washington earlier
Friday, the United States said that any country opposing the resolution
'will be on the wrong side of history.'

'I don't see how anybody,
anybody, any country in good conscience can vote against this resolution
after witnessing what has gone in Zimbabwe,' said US State Department
spokesman Sean McCormack.

Mugabe won a runoff election on June 27 after
his opponent Morgan Tsvangirai withdrew from the race, fearing for the
safety of supporters who had been subjected to violent repression in the
run- up to the vote.

The United States, Europe and some African countries
have rejected the election results.

Last-ditch effort to move Zimbabwe talks
forward

Christian Science Monitor

As dispute persists in wake of presidential election, the country
seems poised between negotiated settlement and outright civil war.By
Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the July
11, 2008 edition

JOHANNESBURG - With last-ditch efforts to get talks
started, Zimbabwe this week seems perched at possible turning point, with a
peaceful negotiated settlement on one side, and outright civil war on the
other.

Starting Thursday, the South African government initiated a new
round of talks between the ruling party of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe
and the representatives of the opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai. Yet
Mr. Tsvangirai issued a statement Friday insisting that he sent a team not
to open negotiations, but to set conditions for any future talks, including
the condition of ending state-sponsored violence against the
opposition.

Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change claims that more
than 90 of its supporters have been killed since Tsvangirai won a first
round of presidential elections in March 29. Tsvangirai's victory fell short
of the 50 percent required to avoid a runoff.

"We in the MDC are
committed to finding a peaceful, negotiated solution to the Zimbabwean
crisis and we will take every opportunity to clarify our position and to
allow the voice of the Zimbabwean people to be heard," Tsvangirai said in a
statement. "I and my party have stated categorically that there are no
negotiations between ourselves and [the ruling party] ZANU-PF currently
taking place. In addition, we have stated that no such negotiations can take
place while the ZANU-PF regime continues to wage war on my party and the
people of Zimbabwe."

Zimbabwe's continued political crisis - with two
parties claiming victory in the presidential race - looks strangely
reminiscent of the Kenyan political crisis. Yet unlike Kenya, where
international and domestic pressure forced the two sides to talk, Zimbabwe's
crisis shows no sign of ending soon. President Mugabe insists that talks can
begin only if the opposition accepts him as the country's president.
Tsvangirai insists that the two parties must meet as equals, and only after
Mugabe ends the campaign of violence. South African President Thabo Mbeki,
the designated mediator but nearly rejected by the opposition, has his work
cut out for him.

"I'm not saying that it is out of the question that MDC
would go into a powersharing agreement, but this is not going to be the
route to a democratic Zimbabwe," says Steven Friedman, a senior researcher
at the Institute for Democracy in Southern Africa, a think tank in Tshwane,
as Pretoria is now called. "If a national unity government is going to have
purchase, it will be where two sides worked out an agreement as
equals."

That is not the case between Mugabe - who controls the
Zimbabwean military, police, judiciary, and intelligence services, as well
as several private militias - and Tsvangirai, who merely has the support of
Zimbabwean voters. Mugabe and his generals seem to be using the same tactics
used against Mugabe's rivals in the 1980s, the ZAPU party of Joshua Nkomo.
"He crushed ZAPU, and when it was weakened, he made them junior partners.
You beat on their heads enough till they do things your way."

On
Friday, the United Nations Security Council delayed a vote on tougher
sanctions against top members of Mugabe's inner circle. Zimbabwe's
representative at the UN wrote to the Security Council that such sanctions
would likely undermine the present government of Zimbabwe and "most probably
start a civil war in the country." Sanctions would also turn the UN into a
"force multiplier in support of Britain's colonial crusade against
Zimbabwe."

Mugabe's ZANU-PF fought a 10-year war against British
colonial rule, which ended in the dissolution of white-ruled Rhodesia and
the creation of the new black-ruled Zimbabwe. Both in this year's elections
and in Tsvangirai's previous bid for president in 2003, Mugabe derided the
opposition leader as a "stooge" of British colonial rule.

Within
Zimbabwe itself, violence against opposition members continues. On July 5,
the burned body of an MDC driver, Joshua Bakacheza, was discovered on a farm
near the town of Beatrice. Bakacheza was last seen in the custody of state
security agents, along with MDC activist Tendai Chidziwo. Mr. Chidziwo and
Bakacheza were ambushed by armed men and driven to an Army-owned farm before
being shot. Chidziwo is recovering from a gunshot wound to the
head.

Last week, South Africa's deputy foreign minister, Aziz Pahad, said
that Zimbabwe would have to end the violence if it wanted talks to succeed.
"If is up to Zimbabwe to take immediate steps to stop the violence," Mr.
Pahad told reporters. "If they do not stop it, we will take action, whatever
action is possible to stop it."

Even opposition leaders who are
currently engaged in talks with Mugabe say that Zimbabwe is perched at the
edge of political chaos, if talks fail.

"What is imperative for
Zimbabweans is making up their minds on whether they want an armed
revolution or they want to talk to each other," wrote Arthur Mutambara, who
leads a split-away faction of the MDC, in an opinion piece in the Zimbabwean
newspaper. Mr. Mutambara met Mugabe in Harare for talks sponsored by
President Mbeki. Tsvangirai boycotted the talks. "Of course, if negotiations
do not succeed there will be only one option left to the people of Zimbabwe.
We will fight."

Royal Dutch Shell to pull out of Zimbabwe - report

AMSTERDAM, July 11 (Reuters) - Anglo-Dutch oil giant
Royal Dutch Shell Plc. <RDSa.L><RDSb.L> will pull out of
Zimbabwe, a spokesman for the company told Dutch news agency ANP on
Friday.

He said Royal Dutch Shell would sell its 50 percent stake in a
joint venture with British Petroleum <BP.L> in that country to South
Africa's Engen Petroleum <ENGN.BT>.

The spokesman added it was
a strategic decision made after a study conducted last year into the
profitability of all downstream activities and was unrelated to the
political situation.

Zimbabwe warned on Thursday that a proposed U.N.
resolution imposing sanctions on its leadership because of elections marred
by violence could start a civil war and turn the country into another
Somalia.

Engen snaps up Shell's business in
Zimbabwe

From Business Day (SA), 11 July

Energy Affairs Editor

Petroleum products group
Engen announced yesterday it had concluded a sale and purchase agreement to
buy Shell's downstream business interests in Lesotho and crisis-torn
Zimbabwe, where Engen said it was taking a long-term view that the economy
would recover. Engen's foray into Zimbabwe comes as that country's political
and economical outlook becomes even bleaker and after this week's
condemnation of the Harare government at the Group of Eight summit. The
world's richest countries have put pressure on the United Nations to tighten
the noose on the Zimbabwean government through targeted sanctions. The
acquisitions, whose value was not given, come hot on the heels of another in
Gabon, where Engen bought Shell's interest in petroleum products and
distribution company Pizo. In December last year, the company also acquired
Shell's 60% interest in Shell DRC (Democratic Republic of
Congo).

Engen spokeswoman Tania Landsberg yesterday said the
recent acquisitions were in support of the company's foray into the rest of
Africa. "This is part of our strategy. Our focus is on sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa is where our growth is," Landsberg said. Engen has a presence in 17
African countries. In Zimbabwe, Engen - owned by Malaysian oil company
Petronas (80%) and black economic empowerment group Worldwide Africa
Investment Holdings (20%) - would purchase Shell's share in a joint venture
with BP, Landsberg said. She said the company acknowledged that the timing
of the deal was sensitive. "We do not get involved in the politics," she
said. Engen had taken a long-term view of the Zimbabwean situation. "We
believe that, in the long term, this is a good deal. We believe that
Zimbabwe will recover," she said. Engen CEO Rashid Yusof said yesterday:
"While Zimbabwe's economy has declined sharply over the last decade, it
still has good infrastructure which we believe will form the basis of
renewed economic growth, once the current political situation is
resolved."

Engen said it already had seven retail sites in Lesotho
and the acquisition would see the group capture 35% of that country's
market. Landsberg said the group was not in a position to divulge the value
of the acquisitions. "It is part of the confidentiality agreement with the
seller," she said. Yusof said the deals were still subject to the approval
of the respective countries' governments "as well as other regulatory
requirements". "Engen welcomes these investment opportunities. We have the
utmost confidence in our future in both countries," Yusof said. Shell
spokesman Dennis Matsane said yesterday there was nothing unusual about
Shell's exit from downstream markets in several countries. The deals were
consistent with the multinational's "more upstream and profitable
downstream" strategy. "We remain committed to Africa," he said. In its
strategy, Shell has said it wants approximately 80% of its capital
investment this year to be upstream - in the exploration of oil and gas and
oil sand projects.

Barclays resists UK pressure to pull out of Zim

By Alex Bell11 July
2008

Barclays Zimbabwe has reiterated that it will not pull out of the
country, despite growing pressure by the British government for it to
suspend its operations.

Zimbabwe's state run Herald Newspaper on
Friday quoted Barclays head of Corporate Affairs, Valeta Mthimkulu, who
said: "Barclays has operated in Zimbabwe for almost 100 years, serving the
interest of the Zimbabwean people under successive governments, in a way
that we believe to be responsible and ethical". Mthimkulu continued that
"wherever we (Barclays) operate, we are apolitical and we seek to comply
with relevant laws".

Lesley Griffiths, a member of the Welsh Assembly in
the UK, has written to senior executives at Barclays Bank UK, calling on
them to "make a stand" against Mugabe's regime by suspending its operations
Zimbabwe. She told Newsreel on Friday that she is "extremely disappointed"
with the banks refusal to pull its business out of the country. She says the
bank's defence of "an historic attachment with Zimbabwe is totally
irrelevant given the current crisis".

Griffiths added she has still
not received a reply from the bank's top executives in Britain, almost a
week after sending them her letter, but said she would continue putting
pressure on the bank despite its decision to continue doing business in
Zimbabwe.

Griffiths also added she hoped "other UK businesses with
operating ties to Zimbabwe would heed UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's call
to block the country, until the crisis there has been
resolved".

Zim: 'Don't blame EU'

IOL

††††July 11 2008 at
06:56PM

The situation in Zimbabwe was not caused by sanctions
imposed on it, French ambassador Denis Pietton said on Friday.

"That the country is in this situation because of sanctions is not true,"
Pietton told the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in
Pretoria, adding that the European Union provided humanitarian aid to
Zimbabwe.

He said that "maybe" a unity government would be a
feasible solution to the Zimbabwean situation. President Robert Mugabe
regained the presidency in June following presidential run-off
elections.

Pietton also credited South Africa for the role it
played in the initial March 29 elections.

"Sooner than later
there should be elections (in Zimbabwe), that is the position of the EU,"
said Pietton, whose country assumed the presidency of the EU at the
beginning of July. - Sapa

Zim pardons aid workers

iafrica.com

Article By:Fri, 11 Jul 2008
17:15A ban slapped by Zimbabwean authorities on aid workers over their
alleged involvement in politics ahead of last month's election is expected
to be lifted within days, a top UN official said Friday.

"All
indications from the authorities are that it (an end to the ban) is
imminent," the United Nations representative to Harare, Agustino Zacarias,
told AFP. "We believe it is a matter of days."

President Robert
Mugabe's government ordered a suspension to all field operations by
international humanitarian agencies and private volunteer organizations
working in the southern African country early last month after accusing NGOs
of siding with the opposition ahead of the 27 June vote.

The measure did
not apply to UN agencies operating in the country.

Lancaster Museka,
secretary for the ministry of social welfare, could not be drawn into
details of when the ban would be scrapped, saying the decision rests with
cabinet.

"It is just a question of the (social welfare) minister
approaching cabinet, saying now that the election is over, these
organisations would like to resume their operations," he told
AFP.

"Once cabinet approves then they can resume." The suspension has
raised fears of a potential humanitarian crisis in the impoverished
country.

"There is no food distribution ... and now we are heading into a
situation where people will have no food," said Fambai Ngirande, spokesman
of the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations of Zimbabwe
(NANGO).

"By August/September people will have exhausted their harvest,
which was very lean this year," he told AFP.

Aid agencies cater for
between two and three million people, out of the country's 12 million
population.Sapa

Gono
rants aganist sanctions, admits he has failed

Zimbabwe, Harare--A day after he
made the cut to the list of ZANU-PF individuals the United Nations would
like to see punished for their criminality, Gideon Gono, the governor of the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, told Zimbabweans to "rally and unite" against
sanctions.

Gono, didn't say why Zimbabweans should rally against
international UN sanctions, when they will only affect him and other people
within Robert Mugabe's close circle of friends.

Analysts have
told Gono time and again that unless the political situation is resolved,
there is nothing he can do to fix the economy. Two, three years ago, Gono
refused to accept this advice. Now he has changed his mind, he has seen the
light.

"The time has come for all of us to understand that our
national economy does not exist in a vacuum nor does it exist as another
world separate from our national politics," Gono said, as if he had just
discovered this himself for the first time.

"The economy and
politics are inextricably intertwined such that it does not make sense for
any one to expect the RBZ to fix the national economy somehow and turn it
around for the better when political players continue to play bickering
games over the way forward. Therefore, I cannot imagine, let alone proffer,
any way forward in terms of reviving the economy given the current situation
that is not based on and informed by a political economy of national
unity."

It is the first time that Gono has publicly acknowledged
that he has failed in his bid to restore the economy to normalcy. In 2003,
when he took over, he postured all over the place, instituting a host of
initiatives that he claimed would see Zimbabwe's economy stabilize, and then
grow.

He fixed the exchange rate to please Mugabe. He took over
responsibilities of the Ministry of Finance. He printed money, 24/7. He gave
loans, which he knew would not be returned, to the corruption ridden
government run companies like the Grain Marketing Body (GMB), Zimbabwe
Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ)
among others. He jumped into the agriculture sector, giving diesel, earlier,
and seed to the 'new farmers', beneficiaries of the Third (3rd)
Chimurenga.

All those initiatives failed. Instead of trying to fix
the economy, these days Gono spends his time plotting, together with other
members of the shadowy mafia like Joint Operations Command (JOC), how to
keep Mugabe in power.

In the recent elections, he diverted
funds to the ZANU-PF campaign, funding the printing of ZANU-PF t-shirts,
posters, and buying cars and computers for Mugabe to donate to the
electorate.

Gono has decided to blame his failure on sanctions,
hence his call for the people to unite against them. --Harare Tribune
News

Moyo on MDC strategy, Mugabe's legitimacy and unity
government

New Zimbabwe

†

TALKING POINTS ON THE CURRENT POLITICAL SITUATION IN ZIMBABWE WITH SPECIAL
REFERENCE TO POSITIONS TAKEN BY MORGAN TSVANGIRAI AND HIS MDCPresented by
Prof Jonathan MoyoHarare Quill ClubJuly 10, 2008Last updated: 07/12/2008 06:45:221. INTRODUCTION

• After I received an invitation to today’s
discussion, a media friend of mine who is one of the administrators of this club
and who is also very active in the MDC Tsvangirai party told me that the reason
for the invitation was to enable me to clarify some remarks I made recently at
the Bulawayo Press Club which my friend said were too critical of Tsvangirai and
about which he said I needed to be roasted.

• In addition, my media and MDC friend said I needed
to explain myself in the light of what he claimed were growing reports within
both the MDC Tsvangirai and the media fraternity in general that I am on the
verge of rejoining Zanu PF as these reports were of major concern to him and
many others in the media and opposition politics.

• Well, I shall address the first point in some
detail as a substantive issue in a little while because I think it raises
fundamental questions about the state of tolerance in our national politics and
the future thereof.

• Regarding the second issue, I do not see any reason
why I should come here and justify or defend my political affiliation as if I
don’t know that freedom of association is a constitutionally protected
fundamental right to which each and every one of us is entitled.

• The record will show that I have not and will never
delegate my right to freedom of association to anybody whether in the media,
opposition politics, Zanu PF or the so-called international community. The right
is mine and mine alone. The only people who matter in terms of how I exercise
that right are members of my family.

• Otherwise, for the avoidance of any doubt, I don’t
mind reminding those who want to know that I am happily the duly elected
Independent Member of the House of Assembly for Tsholotsho North yet to be sworn
in. Nothing is about to change in that regard.

2. TSVANGIRAI & HIS
MDC NOT IMMUNE FROM CRITICISM

• But the one question that requires some substantive
reflection is about the alleged concern about my criticism of
Tsvangirai.

• I must say with all respect to those concerned that
I am quite alarmed by the suggestion that Tsvangirai is or should be above
criticism and that somehow criticizing him constitutes a political
crime.

• The fact is that Tsvangirai is clearly part of the
national leadership in this country and all leaders, especially those who aspire
to hold the highest office of the land and who, like Tsvangirai, style
themselves as democratic and for democratic change, must be subject to serious
and enlightened public criticism.

• I do not and will never subscribe to the
underdeveloped notion that any criticism of President Mugabe is by definition
tantamount to endorsement of Tsvangirai nor do I subscribe to the converse that
any criticism of Tsvangirai is ipso facto an endorsement of President Mugabe.
There is more to life than that.

• Contrary to emotive claims that the presidential
election in Zimbabwe ended up as a sham of a one man race, we all know that the
Presidential election that started on March 29 and ended on June 27 had four
candidates. I for one have had opportunity to publicly criticize three of those:
namely President Mugabe, Simba Makoni and Morgan Tsvangirai in their capacities
as acknowledged national leaders.

• I have not had time nor desire to even bother about
the other candidate whose name I cannot even remember simply because he is not a
national leader and must have been a front of some unknown shadowy force out
there.

• Those in opposition politics or in the media who
think that public criticism of national leaders should only be restricted to
criticising Makoni, Mugabe and other Zanu PF politicians are either naÔve or
stupid.

• I have criticized Tsvangirai’s withdrawal and his
manner of withdrawal from the Presidential Runoff election not only because
there was a rational basis for believing he could win that runoff but also
because his withdrawal was an unfortunate vote of no confidence in the
electorate.

• In fact, the withdrawal was a betrayal of the
electorate and an attack on the democratic process which amplified serious
leadership failure on Tsvangirai’s part.

• I shall further explain these considerations
shortly.

3. CLARIFYING THE QUESTION OF VIOLENCE

• I am aware that the one reason given for
Tsvangirai’s withdrawal was that political violence, intimidation and harassment
had gotten out of hand and that the withdrawal was necessary to stop that
violence and the attendant intimidation and harassment.

• Yes, there is no doubt or debate about the fact
that there was indeed deplorable political violence and intimidation in some
parts of the country notably in the provinces of Mashonaland Central,
Mashonaland East, Manicaland and parts of Masvingo province but certainly not
though out the country.

• That violence which should be condemned in the
strongest possible terms resulted in the murder of scores of people and injury
to many more while some had their houses burnt down leading to the displacement
of a number of families.

• And while most of the reported cases of the
violence were inter-party, pitting Zanu PF against MDC Tsvangirai and vice
versa, there are many unreported cases of intra-party violence and intimidation
which took place within Zanu PF during pungwes in Mashonaland Central,
Mashonaland East, Masvingo and Manicaland.

• I have been shocked and disappointed by the claim
made by Tsvangirai and others in his party, the media, in the UK and the US who
have claimed that the political violence and intimidation seen between last
April and June 25 has never been seen in Zimbabwe since independence in
1980.

• Even more shocking, this patently false and
self-serving claim features prominently in black and white in Tsvangirai’s
formal 25 June letter to ZEC withdrawing from the runoff.

• This claim is a very cheap, most unfortunate and
utterly scandalous attempt to falsify Zimbabwe’s political and electoral
history.

• The fact that is still crying out loud in our
country waiting for resolution is that the period leading to and after the 1985
general election was the darkest in the political and electoral history of this
country. The political violence, intimidation and harassment against the
membership, supporters and leadership of PF Zapu that preceded and followed that
election has not been equalled by anything since then.

• There is nothing to be gained in political terms by
counting dead bodies in order to turn that into a political manifesto. This is
what the MDC Tsvangirai and its British and American supporters have been doing
with the political violence that took place in Zimbabwe between April 4 and June
25.

• But it is a well known fact that for some 24 months
before the 1985 general election, the Matabeleland and Midlands provinces had
the Fifth Brigade deployed there during which some 20,000 people were massacred
while many more were tortured, maimed, had their homes destroyed or their
livelihood lost. All this happened when the whole country was still under the
brutal Rhodesian state of emergency and communities in Matabeleland and the
Midlands provinces were under a dehumanising dusk to dawn curfew from 6pm to
6am.

• Victims of these atrocities feel insulted and
demeaned by Tsvangirai’s false and politically insensitive claim that the
violence that happened in the run up to the runoff is unprecedented in
Zimbabwe’s political and electoral history.

• I just cannot bring myself to supporting
Tsvangirai’s political falsification of history for his own political gains, as
someone who represents a constituency that bore the brunt of the Gukurahundi
atrocities when the Fifth Brigade was first deployed in Tsholotsho in January
1983 and continued to suffer those atrocities beyond the 1985 general
election.

• Those who cannot understand this fundamental
concern have a problem and they should not expect me to solve their
problem.

4. TSVANGIRAI’S WITHDRAWAL FROM THE RUNOFF WAS
ILL-ADVISED

• Against this backdrop, I believe Tsvangirai’s
withdrawal from the runoff on the basis that there was unprecedented violence
and political intimidation against the electorate is not historically
justified.

• Whether intended or not, the impact of Tsvangirai’s
withdrawal from the runoff was (a) to deny the electorate an opportunity to
demonstrate its maturity by expressing itself even under the most difficult
circumstances and (b) to hold the electorate in contempt on grounds that it is
not mature or strong willed enough to withstand political violence and
intimidation and therefore could be trusted to vote its own conscience against
all odds.

• What was even more disturbing about Tsvangirai’s
withdrawal from the runoff is that there was no consultation over the decision
with other democratic forces in the country whose support Tsvangirai, his
fundraisers and political surrogates apparently want to take for granted. Their
futile expectation was that the MDC cabal would make the decision and everyone
else would simply fall in line and support that decision because anything that
Tsvangirai does or says must be supported by all progressive and democratic
forces without any question or criticism.

• That kind of approach, which really smacks of the
same old stuff, cannot foster the development of a new or alternative democratic
culture and process in Zimbabwe.

• It did not matter that the decision to withdraw
from the runoff four days before the fact sharply contradicted Tsvangirai’s
widely publicised position that he believed he did not have to campaign at all
and that he could just stay at home and wait for June 27 as no amount of
violence, intimidation or harassment would sway the electorate against him
because in his view it had already made up its mind in his favour.

5. THE
CAUSE OF THE POOR DECISION TO WITHDRAW FROM THE RUNOFF

• A question that follows from the foregoing is this:
what caused Tsvangirai to make what I believe was a wrong decision to withdraw
from the runoff at the eleventh hour without any consultation with other
democratic forces and against his own public position in support of the runoff
and to the detriment of the growth and development of the democratic process in
the country?

• Although this issue remains unexamined in the
media, I believe the real reason behind that decision and indeed other poor
decisions taken recently by Tsvangirai is because he and his MDC have become
victims of their near success on March 29, 2008.

• In particular, since March 29, the decision making
process in Tsvangirai and the MDC has been hijacked by some dangerously
ambitious outsiders and is now firmly in the reckless hands of the party’s
leading fundraisers, namely Strive Masiyiwa and Roy Bennett.

• This is now creating very serious but untold
problems for Tsvangirai, creating problems for his so-called kitchen cabinet and
creating more problems for the now disempowered MDC structures which can no
longer make head or tail of what is happening within the party.

• For example, Masiyiwa has seconded to Tsvangirai
Wellington Chadeumbe and George Sibotshiwe who are now at the centre of the
MDC’s decision making and communication virtually from nowhere in political
terms as far as the MDC structures are concerned.

• As a result, Tsvangirai’s so-called kitchen cabinet
and the party structures have been successfully marginalised and sidelined by
Masiyiwa and Bennett as they are no longer consulted on key party
decisions.

• Tsvangirai himself now typically makes
contradictory statements by the day such that in any given week he makes at
least seven internally contradictory statements about one and the same
thing.

• There have also been glaringly contradictory
statements coming from Tsvangirai, Tendai Biti and Nelson Chamisa.

• All these developments have been particularly
pronounced since the MDC’s near success on March 29 and following the rise of
the MDC Tsvangirai’s fundraisers to the centre of the party’s decision
making.

• One of the consequences of this development which
has cost the MDC politically was the decision for Tsvangirai and Biti to leave
Zimbabwe in early April, just a few days after the March 29 election, and to
remain in self-imposed exile for some six weeks during which the internal
structures of the party lost cohesion as all decisions were now being made not
only by the party’s fundraisers but they were also being literally made outside
the country where Tsvangirai and Biti were.

• Foreign interests that influence things in the MDC,
especially the British government, have taken advantage of this situation as
they are finding it much easier to work through Roy Bennett and Strive Masiyiwa
than through the so-called kitchen cabinet or the more complicated MDC’s
structures.

• This has given the British and American governments
false confidence to make Zimbabwe’s national politics their business.

• Even the United Nations has, through this window,
allowed itself to be used to concern itself with a disputed presidential
election as if unaware that most of its membership is well known for holding the
funniest elections that are too comical to even worry about.

• I know that there are some or even many in the MDC
Tsvangirai who would deny this with red faces until the cows come home but I can
tell you that I am not making anything up because this is factual and there is
more to it than I have said.

6. WHO IS THE PRESIDENT OF ZIMBABWE:
Contrasting legal legitimacy with political legitimacy

• With this background in mind, who is the President
of Zimbabwe?

• In terms of legal legitimacy, it is clear that
Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. One does not need to hold a brief from him
to appreciate this point.

• I have heard and read media references to the June
27 runoff as a one horse race or one man election.

• That is not the legally correct position. We all
know that there were initially four candidates, then there were two and then
there was one who was legally the winner after the other one
withdrew.

• There was no legal need to have the formality of an
election on June 27 after Tsvangirai formally withdrew on June 25. At the point
of that withdrawal, ZEC could and should have declared the winner and spared us
from the political formality of an election that was no longer legally
necessary.

• In fact, and strictly speaking, Tsvangirai elected
Mugabe alone through his ill-advised withdrawal. It is ludicrous for any to
unilaterally withdraw from an election four days before it takes place and
legally expect to be declared the winner of the same election.

• The ZEC argument that Tsvangirai should have
withdrawn 21 days before March 29 to avoid a runoff is nonsensical. The fact of
the matter is that ZEC failed to publish regulations specifically dealing with
the runoff not least because of its inexplicable and unfortunate delay in
announcing the March 29 presidential outcome.

• However, while President Mugabe does have legal
legitimacy as President, his political legitimacy is under serious
contestation.

• He clearly has a political problem and that is
partly why he has committed himself to a government of national unity and that
is indeed also why there must be negotiations to achieve a political settlement
outside the election process.

7. THE INEVITABILITY OF A GNU

• The major reason that makes negotiations on a
government of national unity necessary is because there is no single party in
the House of Assembly that has the required minimum number of seats to either
control Parliament or form a government.

• While it has been common to find claims in the
media that the MDC Tsvangirai has a majority in Parliament, the reality is
contrary to that.

• For any party to have the required majority in the
House of Assembly, it must have at least 106 seats. The MDC Tsvangirai has 100,
Zanu PF had 99 and now it has 98 following the death of one of its elected
candidates from Gokwe, the MDC Mutambara has 10 with one Independent.

• One clearest failure of the MDC Tsvangirai is that
to this day it does not have a binding or functional agreement with the MDC
Mutambara to cooperate in Parliament.

• In fact, the MDC Mutambara formation is continuing
to participate in the Sadc dialogue as a fully fledged opposition party with all
of its rights still reserved.

• Tsvangirai would have been strategic had he
succeeded in ensuring that the two MDCs participated in the dialogue as one
voice. He has lost that opportunity and with it he may have lost the opportunity
to control Parliament, having already lost the presidency.

CONCLUSION

• Notwithstanding the grandstanding in the media, it
is now obvious that there is no way forward for Zimbabwe outside a government of
national unity.

• As I have already mentioned, at the very least the
composition of the House of Assembly dictates that.

• I believe that the Sadc mediation process will
succeed because there’s no better alternative.

• Indeed, this is the position that has now been
taken by everyone who matters in the country, Sadc, African Union, EU and the
United Nations.

• What remains to be seen is who will be what in the
government of national unity. Some of that will be determined by Mugabe in terms
of his legal legitimacy and some of it will be a result of the Sadc dialogue
because of challenges to Mugabe’s political legitimacy.

Jonathan
Moyo joins ZANU-PF, on promise of cabinet post

Zimbabwe, Harare--Prof.
Jonathan Moyo, the political turncoat that penned, together with George
Charamba and Patrick Chinamasa, POSA and AIPPA, has decided to ditch the
fight for democracy in Zimbabwe for a few pieces of silver.

Moyo, severing his ties with the opposition movement, said "Mugabe is the
right person to lead a GNU, because he won the June 27 election" and that
"Tsvangirai lacks leadership qualities."

Moyo, since before March
29, has kept his mouth shut, to enhance his chances of being appointed into
a government, be it that of Simba Makoni, Morgan Tsvangirai or Robert
Mugabe.

Now that he feels the political power pendulum has swung in
Robert Mugabe's direction, he has opened his mouth, pouring forth vitriol to
his sudden enemy Tsvangirai, to guarantee his post in Mugabe's
cabinet.

The Zimbabwe Independent said last week Mugabe was going
to put Moyo back into his government as Minister of
Information.

Moyo, out to attack the MDC on behalf of ZANU-PF,
berated Tsvangirai for pulling out of the June 27 election, claiming that
yes there was violence, but not at the level as that occurred during the
1985 election.

"Tsvangirai's withdrawal seemed to hold the
electorate in contempt on the grounds that it is not mature enough to
withstand political violence and intimidation and, therefore, it cannot be
trusted to vote its conscience," he said.

He added that
Tsvangirai should have taken part in the election, irregardless of the
violence, pointing out that despite the violence, Joshua Nkomo took part in
the 1985 election.

Moyo, of course, didn't bother to explain what
happened to Nkomo after he took part in that election.

These
comments by Moyo prove once again that he is a man who will do anything to
gain power. These are the very sick people Zimbabweans are tired
of.

By joining hands with Mugabe, Jonathan has shown his true
colors to those Zimbabweans who thought he had repented for authoring POSA
and AIPPA, acts that have haunted the people of Zimbabwe for the past six
years. --Harare Tribune News

Who will lead Zim?

Zanu-PF and the MDC have advanced tentative power-sharing
proposals, but are still divided on who will lead a possible
coalition.

This is the fractious contention between Zimbabwe's two
main parties, who met on Thursday in Pretoria for the first time since the
controversial presidential run-off elections on June 27 .

Zanu-PF dispatched Patrick Chinamasa and Nicholas Goche to represent the
party at the talks, while Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change was
represented by party secretary-general Tendai Biti and his co-negotiator,
Elton Mangoma. Arthur Mutambara's smaller MDC faction was headed by Welshman
Ncube and Priscilla Misihairabwi.

Facilitating the meeting was
President Thabo Mbeki's legal adviser, Mojanku Gumbi; his director-general,
Frank Chikane; and his special envoy, Provincial and Local Government
Minister Sydney Mufamadi.

In a telephone interview with The Star on
Thursday Tsvangirai said: "This is not talks. This is talks about
talks."

While the contents of Thursday's talks were closely
guarded, it is understood that the main rivals failed to agree on the form
and structure of the coalition government or transitional arrangement that
could lead the country's beyond the current impasse.

As day one
of the talks came to a close on Thursday night, Independent Newspapers was
reliably informed that Zanu-PF wants "an inclusive government" in which
Tsvangirai will be given "a senior post", with Mugabe as an executive
president.

For its part, the MDC was pushing for Tsvangirai to be
installed as prime minister, with executive powers, with Mugabe accepting a
role as a ceremonial president until the 84-year-old Zanu-PF leader steps
out of Zimbabwe's political life.

However, Tsvangirai denied
that headway was made during yesterday's day-long meeting.

"Those persons portraying this meeting as the beginning of negotiations
between the MDC and Zanu-PF are being disingenuous and exploiting the plight
of the Zimbabwean people for political gain," he said.

The MDC
leader vowed that talks could not begin in earnest until preconditions were
met, which included an end to all political violence against his supporters;
the withdrawal and disbanding of Zanu-PF militia groups; the release of
about 1 500 imprisoned MDC members; and the appointment of an African Union
envoy to aid Mbeki's mediation.

This article was originally
published on page 1 of The Star on July 11, 2008

Regrets of a hired political thug

Photo:

Feeling
guilty

CHITUNGWIZA, 11 July 2008 (IRIN) - Stanlus
Marowa's brief stint as a henchman recruited by local ZANU-PF party leaders is
coming back to haunt him since they abandoned him, and he is now facing the
wrath of his community and charges of assault and theft.

Marowa, 24,
unemployed and living the dormitory town of Chitungwiza, 30km south of the
capital, Harare, told IRIN that he had engaged in acts of torture against
supporters of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) after the 29
March poll, in which the ruling ZANU-PF party lost its majority in parliament
for the first time since independence in 1980 and its leader, Robert Mugabe,
came off second best in the presidential poll.

Marowa told IRIN he was
"conscripted" by ZANU-PF into a youth militia, and was tasked with identifying
and torturing MDC supporters in St Mary's, a suburb of Chitungwiza.

"My
victims reported me to the police for beating them up and stealing from their
houses and, at that time, I thought that the police, as in the past, would take
no action."†But after Mugabe, as the sole candidate, won the
second-round presidential runoff on 29 June, Marowa found things had
changed.

"When I asked [ZANU-PF] party leaders in my area to intervene,
they told me that they could not protect me since the elections were over and
Mugabe had won," said Marowa, who has appeared in court on charges of
housebreaking and assault. "I am now alone, I have been cheated and I don't
think the feeling of guilt that I have now will ever go away."

When I asked [ZANU-PF] party
leaders in my area to intervene, they told me that they could not protect me
since the elections were over and Mugabe had won. I am now alone,†I have been
cheated and I don't think the feeling of guilt that I now have will ever go
away

The election has been widely condemned, and
even the few African observer missions permitted to monitor the poll have
declared it not free and fair.

Mugabe, who has ruled the southern
African state for 28 years, denied any complicity in election violence. "I
instructed them to go and campaign for me, not to beat up people," he said, and
has also blamed the MDC for the violence. † Marowa said he and scores of
other youth militia had operated from a base that had since been dismantled; his
colleagues, fearing arrest, had fled to rural areas - where political violence
is still being reported - to escape prosecution.

"I am now being treated
like a leper or murderer [by the community] simply because I was too stupid to
know that I was fighting other people's war on the basis of empty promises."

He said local ZANU-PF leaders had promised him rewards for his
handiwork, such as scholarships to study overseas - even though he failed his
exams - or a job in government, if Mugabe was re-elected.

While Marowa
has turned to the church for redemption, the victims of political violence said
their experiences were too raw to contemplate forgiveness.

"How does it
feel to lose a relative, to be maimed or raped and to lose your property, simply
for exercising your vote? Why would these militias be so ready to participate in
this war of attrition, particularly when they are neighbours?" said Grange
Mairos, 68, who lives in St Mary's suburb.

No forgiveness from
victims

"We told them chickens would come back home to roost,
and that is what is happening, exactly." He said he helped his daughter open a
case of rape against another member of the militia, "but when reporting, you
need to be careful and stay away from politics as much as possible, otherwise
you can frighten the police from recording your case," he told IRIN.

Mairos has not managed to visit his home in rural Masvingo Province, in
southeastern Zimbabwe, since the beginning of May, for fear of attack, but he
has been told by relatives that the militia killed his three goats and took his
grain to use as food at their bases, which were also used as torture camps.

"Once the dust has settled, those who stole my livestock and grain will
have to compensate me or face jail; I know them," Mairos said.

David
Chimhini, the director of the Harare-based Zimbabwe Civic Education Trust, said
it would be difficult for victims to forgive their "enemies", but it was
important that political parties "invest their efforts in a process of national
healing and promote a culture of tolerance and forgiveness, if we are to pull
out of this mess".

"You can't underestimate the urge for revenge among
victims, now that they have a sense of boldness as the election fever subsides.
But retaliation would be regrettable, given the sorry state that post-election
violence has left our country in. Political parties and civil society should
come together and build the capacity in communities for co-existence," Chimhini
told IRIN.

He said it was "unfortunate that innocent people were turned
into murderers by political leaders who just want to safeguard their personal
interests", but also conceded that some of the perpetrators of violence were
"settling personal scores with their enemies, yet others were naively
overzealous".

[ENDS]

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United
Nations]

West has little leverage on Zimbabwe

Reuters

Fri 11 Jul 2008, 15:07
GMT

By Barry Moody

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The West has a limited
arsenal in trying to bring change in Zimbabwe despite unprecedented
international outrage over bloody elections last month that returned
President Robert Mugabe to power.

In fact, pressure by former colonial
power Britain and the United States to impose sanctions on the Zimbabwean
leadership could be counterproductive as well as ineffective, analysts
say.

"For people in the West to think the United States or the U.K.
in particular could throw a switch and all of a sudden Zimbabwe is going to
change, that is just not going to happen," said Mark Schroeder, sub-Sahara
director of risk analysis firm Stratfor.

Mugabe, 84, stood
unchallenged in the June 27 election after the opposition pulled out a week
before, saying a brutal campaign by pro-government militias made a fair vote
impossible.

The veteran leader's decision to press ahead and extend his
28-year-rule provoked a wave of condemnation that included several outspoken
African countries--extremely rare in the continent's politics.

But
translating that wave of condemnation into practical action to force change
looks like being a difficult process.

Disagreements in the 15-member U.N.
Security Council have already this week delayed a vote on a U.S.-drafted
resolution that would impose an arms embargo and financial and travel
restrictions on Mugabe and his entourage.

Washington had wanted a vote by
Wednesday and Western backers are now hoping for one on Friday, but
veto-holding powers China and Russia are sceptical about
sanctions.

Mugabe and his inner circle have been subjected to targeted
Western sanctions for years without budging and experts say they have
already adjusted their travel and the way they move their money
accordingly.

At the same time, lingering resentment of former colonial
powers makes many African nations prickle when Britain or other Western
countries raise the rhetoric against Mugabe, a former liberation
hero.

"There is a sense of frustration in the African Union that elements
within the West are obsessed with Zimbabwe given the other problems and
crises in Africa, " said Tim Cargill of Britain's Chatham House think
tank.

"That makes it harder to agree on U.N. resolutions," he
said.

SANCTIONS

Schroeder agrees. "It is almost obligatory for the
United States, U.K. Europe...to apply sanctions but it is largely for their
own consumption...those sanctions by themselves are not likely to bring a
change in Zimbabwe."

Fierce attacks by Britain in particular are
exploited by Mugabe, whose use of London and white farmers as universal
scapegoats still resonates in Africa.

"Especially when Britain is
going to lead the charge, that is fantastic for propaganda purposes,"
Schroeder said.

At the same time, the collapse of Zimbabwe's economy and
the plunging of much of the population into poverty and hunger make broader
sanctions unlikely without risking an even bigger humanitarian
disaster.

The key to bringing change in Zimbabwe is South Africa and a
small group of countries that seem highly unlikely to take the draconian
action that would be needed to speed change.

Zimbabwe is landlocked
and dependent on South Africa and to a lesser extent Mozambique not only to
export its vital minerals, including platinum, but to import mining
machinery and to move money through financial institutions.

Despite a
crisis that has flooded South Africa and other neighbours with millions of
economic migrants -- contributing to an upsurge of bloody xenophobia earlier
this year -- President Thabo Mbeki has stuck steadfastly to a policy of
discreet negotiations that critics say favour Mugabe.

There seems scant
chance that Mbeki will change his tactics to apply tougher pressure, despite
increasingly vocal criticism even from his own ruling African National
Congress party.

"They are not going, as far as one can tell, to muscle
the way towards that...it is not clear to me that the situation is going to
change in a hurry," said Paul Graham, director of the Institute for
Democracy in South Africa.

Leaders from the opposition Movement for
Democratic Change and Mugabe's ZANU-PF held their first talks since the
election in Pretoria this week.

But the MDC says there can be no
substantive negotiations until several conditions are met, including the end
of attacks it says have killed 113 of its supporters.

Schroeder says
that in addition to South Africa, Mugabe's survival depends on support from
Angola and Equatorial Guinea -- who supply oil -- and Mozambique, which
provides another outlet to the sea through the port of Beira.

He said
that tough recent criticism from neighbouring Botswana, Kenya and a group of
Anglophone West African countries including Nigeria and Liberia would make
little real difference.

Mozambique, South Africa and Angola would find it
difficult politically to cut off Mugabe because of powerful links forged
during the struggle against colonial and apartheid rule.

"It is one
thing for the up and coming leadership in Botswana and Kenya to criticise.
They did not grow with the support that Mugabe and the region provided. It
is another thing for countries in the region to sanction the regime,"
Schroeder said.

A
Listeners Opinion

A former Zimbabwean state media executive once
described George Charamba, President Robert Mugabe's acerbic spokesman as
"an idiot in a suit".

The epithet followed Charamba's acquiescence to the
2001 dismissal of some state media editors Information Minister Jonathan
Moyo had not been fond of, and the pleasure the spin doctor seemed to derive
from administering pain and suffering on luckless journalists.

Thus
Charamba's infantile tirade during a recent interview with a London based
radio station and his theatrics at the Africa Union Summit on Tuesday gave
the world a quick glimpse into the measure of the cabal that is ensconced in
Munhumutapa Building, and the desperation that now pervades the scared
regime.

In a fit of pique, Charamba badgered and howled rabidly at
Zimbabwean exile Violet Gonda of SW Radio, in consequence vindicating Robert
Mugabe's growing band of critics who believe the administration has lost the
plot: and its marbles, it would appear.

Charamba, aping his equally
coarse boss, flew off the handle after Gonda asked him uncomfortable
questions on the state of the economy, 2 000 000 percent inflation,
unmitigated violence, the controversial election runoff, growing paranoia in
Zanu PF and the belief within his party that it was ordained by God to
govern Zimbabwe in perpetuity.

Clearly frothing at the mouth and punching
the air with a clenched fist as he is wont to, Charamba trotted out tired
arguments that targeted Western sanctions had crippled the economy; that
anyone who dared criticise Mugabe was a stooge of the West; that the British
wanted to re-colonise "my †country", and - for good measure - that he would
"fight again" to preserve Zimbabwean independence.

Still in his early
40s, Charamba was too young to have fought in the 1970s Zimbabwean
liberation war, placing him in the same bracket as modern day "war veterans"
- Mugabe's callous rag-tag reserve army that is renowned for committing
heinous crimes; and is reminiscent of former Malawian strongman Kamuzu
Banda's Young Pioneers.

Ironically, Charamba's rise to national
prominence - and infamy in equal measures - coincided with the downward
spiral of Zimbabwe's wellbeing: the economy, politics and social health came
cascading down as Mugabe and his acolytes became increasingly petulant and
repressive.

The sea change in the administration's temperament followed
the emergence the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), of a broad-based
opposition political party which threatened to wrench power from the rapidly
declining Zanu PF; and the record loss in the 2000 referendum on a new
constitution.Before then, Zanu PF had never lost a national political
contest.

As if on cue, Charamba transformed himself from an affable and
decent government information officer into an angry freak, given to stomping
around newsrooms of state media barking orders and demanding total obedience
from editors and their underlings on pain of punishment.

Like a child
mistakenly given a sword on its birthday, Charamba - swinging from the
coat-tails of his former storm-trooping boss Jonathan Moyo - set about
scything down journalists perceived to be too "independent and professional"
to control, leaving the public media bereft of depth and integrity.As a
result, Herald House, Pockets Hill and Media House lost their best and most
experienced journalists; and nearly a decade later, Zimpapers, ZBC and the
re-named New Ziana, are still feeling the effects of the Moyo-Charamba
pogroms.

Thus Zimpapers titles, especially its flagship The Herald
and The Sunday Mail, are now weak excuses of their former selves, and should
fittingly be used to show journalism students 'how not to practice
journalism'.

Today, the papers are run by poorly educated rookies who
lack history, excessively breach ethics, scramble to outdo each other in
peddling government propaganda and keep their jobs by dint of
patronage.

Hence, the Herald perfectly mirrors the rot that pervades the
state media; where the doyens of Zimbabwean journalism who plied their trade
in the third floor newsroom during the first two decades of independence
from Britain in 1980, have given way to Zanu PF apparatchiks, typified by
the efforts of the inimitable Caesar Zvayi.

The other Zimpapers
titles based in Bulawayo and Mutare are mere footnotes run by straggling
minions, given to parroting their more recognised stable mates in
Harare.

At Pockets Hill, however, the decline has been rapid and more
surreal.

The finesse of Joseph Madhimba, David Mwenga, Gavin Reddy, Anani
Maruta, Busi Chindove and Godfrey Majonga that epitomised the
professionalism of electronic journalism in Zimbabwe, has been replaced by
the fecklessness of Reuben Barwe and the pedantic Judith Makwanya.

To
their credit, though, Barwe and Makwanya, who have perfected the art of
bootlicking, have done well for themselves: they have amassed immense wealth
due to frequent travel abroad serenading Mugabe; and by using their
camaraderie with Charamba to access state assets like prime farmland and
scarce commodities.

at the turn of the century, the rotund Barwe,
lived in a tiny township flat he had bummed off former Housing Minister Enos
Chikowore, but now lists a spacious mansion in leafy Belvedere, a luxurious
German car and an expansive farm next to Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono's
property in the fertile farming district of Norton among his many prized
assets.

But If Charamba and Moyo's "re-organisation" of Zimpapers and ZBC
was chaotic, then their handiwork at Ziana was novel. The tag-team reshaped
the organisation in its own image, which to say the least was, well,
ugly.

Once flaunted as the pride of Africa, under Farayi Munyuki and Wilf
Mbanga, Ziana is now a caricature of a news agency. The new New Ziana
suffers chronic funding problems, and like Zimbabwe itself, has haemorrhaged
top notch journalists to the diaspora and Charamba's
sword.

Zimbabwean journalist Mthulisi Mathuthu likens charamba to someone
locked in a time warp: "This is a lowbrow fellow who apparently represents a
whole retinue that is hostage to an archaic Victorian character who resents
new things and is as irascible and malevolent as the Kings of that
time".

Mathuthu believes Mugabe's wordsmith lacks the acumen to formulate
his own ideas and will dutifully mimic his boss, regurgitating Marxist
mantras and staid revolutionally slogans which are bound to declared dead on
arrival even in post Cold War Russia and China.

"Generally, tyrants
want navigable front men who hardly question anything. The type of service
people who never bother to prowl for other ideas outside the dictates or the
syllabus of the leader," he adds in article for New Zimbabwe.com, an online
newspaper.

The demure Gonda need not be horrified by Charamba's antics as
his actions are now the stock-in-trade of the struggling regime. When
cornered, it spews out unvarnished venom in the hope of scaring off its
detractors as Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga discovered on
Tuesday.

Odinga, who has harshly berated Mugabe for stealing the recent
plebiscite, got a mouthful of Charamba's undiplomatic invective in Egypt,
thus: "Odinga's hands drip with blood, raw African blood. And that blood is
not going to be cleansed by any amount of abuse of Zimbabwe. Not at
all."

And of his former Western benefactors Charamba shrieked: "They can
go and hang. They can go to hang a thousand times. They have no claim on
Zimbabwean politics", shocking even the hardened journalists at the press
conference into an eerie silence.

His ire was raised after the West
branded Mugabe an election thief and, therefore, illegitimate.In a twist
of fate, Charamba, who liberally sprinkles his tortuous 'Nathaniel Manheru'
column in The Saturday Herald with bombastic and uncouth language, was
partly educated at Cardiff University, in Wales - on British taxpayers'
money.

Even as American tanks rolled into Baghdad in 2003,
al-Sahaf insisted, "There is no presence of American infidels in the city of
Baghdad." Adding: "There is no presence of the American columns in the city
of Baghdad at all. We besieged them and we killed most of
them."

Maybe Mugabe's spin doctor should shed off his Saville Row suit
for al-Sahaf's more appropriate military fatigues, because the MDC is now at
the gates to Munhumutapa Building.

Unsettling Times - Zimbabweans in
the UK

Britain is home to hundreds of thousand of economic and political
exiles, who follow developments in Zimbabwe with a mixture of fear and
dread.

By Jennifer Koons in London (ZCR No. 154, 11-Jul-08)

The
large-scale migration of Zimbabweans to the United Kingdom in recent years
has earned London the nickname "Harare North".

The exact number varies
but experts suggest that roughly one million Zimbabwean expatriates, most
fleeing rising economic and political instability in their home country, now
reside in the UK.

Between 2000 and 2007, there were an estimated 20,600
asylum applications and about one-third of those have received some sort of
status to remain in the country, according to Soneni Baleni, an expert with
the Zimbabwe Association, an organization that describes itself as a support
group for Zimbabwean asylum-seekers and refugees in the UK.

"So many
Zimbabweans come to the UK because of the colonial link," said Rose Benton,
the co-founder of a London-based advocacy group, the Zimbabwe Vigil.
"Zimbabweans speak English and are educated under an English system. It
makes perfect sense that they settle here."

A 2006 survey of 500
Zimbabweans living in the UK found that their high skill levels and ability
to speak English fluently directly contributed to economic
success.

The ability to actually find work, however, depends greatly on
ones legal status.Asylum-seekers, most of whom are black Zimbabweans,
not allowed to work or even volunteer unless they have been granted refugee
status.

Many white Zimbabweans, in contrast, have relatives in the UK,
which in many cases allows them to move here and secure employment
relatively easily.

Those who await refugee status are therefore in
constant fear of being sent home where their safety will be compromised if
the government realises they claimed asylum in Britain, said
Baleni.

"People try to keep to themselves because they feel frightened,"
she said. "If the next person knows what your situation is like, you have no
control over what they do with that information."

Baleni said most
Zimbabweans fleeing their country's dire economic climate will head to
neighbouring South Africa but London has become the most popular spot for
those seeking political refuge.

"You'll find that most Zimbabweans want
to talk about what's happening at home and they have strong opinions but
they are very scared to say anything in public gatherings," she
said.

Even after they are settled, there remains concern about the threat
posed by Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe's secret services.

"There
is a belief that members of Mugabe's Central Intelligence Organisation are
everywhere and if you say anything, you and your family will be in danger,"
said Baleni.

That fear only increased during the violent lead up to a
widely discredited run-off election in late June in which Mugabe ended up as
the only candidate on the ballot.

Many Zimbabweans living abroad had
hoped opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai would oust Mugabe from office and
bring about peace and stability to the country so that they might return
home.

Tsvangirai withdrew from the election shortly before the vote,
however, citing concerns for the safety of his supporters.

"For a
while you keep thinking that this can't go on for any longer," said Baleni.
"There was a lot of optimism with the [Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic
Change] party, but this is the second election that Mugabe has overtaken and
now all of that optimism has just turned to despair."

In the past,
families would leave Zimbabwe together, but Baleni said that nowadays most
Zimbabweans come to the UK alone so as not to arouse suspicion.

"It
would be difficult to come as a family because the embassy is well aware of
what is happening back home and they will start asking questions if a family
suddenly says they want to go on holiday to Britain," she said. "Unless
someone is really well-off, most often one member of the family will leave
and then try and send money back for everyone still back home."

The Journalist

Award-winning
reporter Sandra Nyaira says she'd be reduced to selling tomatoes on the
street if she returned.

By Jennifer Koons in London (ZCR No. 154,
11-Jul-08)

It's the bustle of the newsroom that she misses the
most.

As the political editor of the Daily News in Zimbabwe, Sandra
Nyaira spent most days tackling hot-button news stories with fellow
journalists in an environment that she recalls "felt alive with
energy".

Six years later, she does most of her reporting from her home in
the United Kingdom. While earning a masters degree in international
journalism from the City University in London in 2002, Zimbabwean
authorities shuttered the Daily News along with other independent newspapers
in the country.

"It's very different working outside of Zimbabwe in that
you don't get the newsroom experience," she said. "Now I write stories from
my bedroom and I don't speak to anyone else. When I was at the Daily News,
we would all sit around and discuss story ideas or brainstorm how to tackle
a particular piece."

At 22, she took her first reporting job with a
government-owned paper and then moved on to the state-run Zimbabwe
Inter-Africa News Agency, where she won four national awards as well as a
Reuters' award. In 1999, the Daily News editor in chief hired her and she
went on to become Zimbabwe's first woman political editor.

Her career
continued its upward trajectory when, at 27, she won the International
Women's Media Foundation Courage in Journalism Award. But everything changed
later that year when she lost her job at the Daily News and struggled to
make ends meet as a foreign reporter in the UK.

Determined to succeed
despite her changed circumstances, she slowly established herself as a
respected freelance journalist. In the past few years alone, her work has
appeared in the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the British Journalism Review
and elsewhere but she spends most of her time writing for the Association of
Zimbabwean Journalists, an organisation which she helped found, and working
as a correspondent for Studio 7, a radio service on the US-government funded
Voice of America in Washington DC.

"I prefer reporting from Zimbabwe and
writing for my own people," she said. "I guess it is good to write for an
international audience, but not everyone who reads my stories is interested
in Zimbabwe. When I was writing for my own people, they would want to know
what is happening in their old backyards."

She said that she, along
with many other Zimbabwean journalists working abroad, would return to their
home country to report if that was an option.

"Everyone I knew who is
part of the Zimbabwe journalism community here wants to go back," she said.
"The main reason we're not in Zimbabwe right now is that we have no jobs to
go home to. The newspapers where we worked were closed down so it did not
make any sense to go back when you were not going to have a
job."

Leaving home did not come without its personal costs.

"My
whole family is back in Zimbabwe - my siblings, my mother and father," she
said. "I have two nephews who have been born since I've been gone - one just
turned two and the other one will be two in October. It is hard. I try to
get the little ones to say something on the phone because I can hear their
voices in the background. I just want to be with them."

But returning
home would not only leave her without a career but would also find her
without an income to help support the loved ones who she has left
behind.

"I could have returned to sell tomatoes on the streets," she
noted ruefully. "If I wasn't here working, I wouldn't be able to buy
anything for my family. It's a catch-22."

With no signs of the
political and economic environment improving any time soon, Nyaira will head
to Washington DC in the fall to do a media fellowship.

Should the
situation for reporters change, she said she would eagerly return to
Zimbabwe.

"If they repeal the draconian media laws that have prohibited
journalists from doing their work, many newspapers would be formed," she
said. "So many people are waiting to invest in their own country. When I go
back home someday, I'm going to start my own project, my own TV
station."

The Teacher

Institute for War & Peace Reporting

Formerly a teacher
in a private school, Joseph Masunungure can only dream of taking up a
similar job in the UK.

By Jennifer Koons in London (ZCR No. 154,
11-Jul-08)

Joseph Masunungure is a teacher. His classroom is a dimly lit
kitchen where he writes up lesson plans while his sister-in-law makes
breakfast. He waits all day for his two pupils - his niece and nephew - to
arrive home from school so he can help them with their
assignments.

Four years ago, he taught mathematics to 45 primary school
students at a private academy in Zimbabwe.

"We had maps on the wall
and exercise books," said Masunungure, who asked that his name be changed
for his safety. "This may not seem like a lot to most people living in
London today but it meant a great deal that every student had a desk. They
were eager to be there and so was I."

Then one afternoon, one of his
pupils told him that he could no longer attend the class since his father
believed Masunungure sympathised with the Movement for Democratic Change,
MDC, the main opposition to President Robert Mugabe.

That was his
last day at the school near Bulawayo where he had taught for seven years.
That night, he and his parents decided it would be best if he left the
country. There had been rumours for several weeks that he was under
surveillance. His brother had worked for the MDC and fled a few years
earlier.

Soon Masunungure joined him - and his UK family - in
London.

"I was lucky," he said. "So many of my people are being forced to
flee to strange lands. I had a place to go. I had someone to take care of
me."

But the move hasn't been without its complications. Several years
have passed and Masunungure hasn't received official papers granting him
refugee status, which means he can't legally work.

"I worry about not
being able to help my brother and I miss my students," he said. "It is
strange trying to occupy yourself like this all day. But my brother says
that in a way I am lucky. He was a development worker in Zimbabwe, but now
he is a store clerk."

Masunungure sleeps on a pull-out couch in the
family's one-bedroom flat near Brick Lane. He spends most days at home
reading or walking around the neighbourhood. While there may be no practical
need to do so, he still dresses the part of an academic and - even on
weekends - wears a button-up dress shirt and slacks.

Although
soft-spoken, he looks you in the eye when he talks and, like a good teacher,
he will repeat himself until he is sure you have understood what he is
trying to say.

He said he would like to return to his home country
someday if only to help the students who he feels sure have been
abandoned.

"So many students can no longer go to school," he said. "They
are forced to pay for their own classroom materials - and they can't. They
do not even have food to bring with them and I have heard stories of
students fainting during class. They need good teachers but all of the
teachers have been pushed out like me."

While the world's attention
is focused on Mugabe, Masunungure said others within the government are more
to blame and are the reason that the unpopular ruler has remained in
power.

"Things aren't going to change - not because of Mugabe but because
of the people under him," he said. "Mugabe can find protection in any
African country. But the people who hold the top security posts can't leave
because they won't be protected for the crimes they have
committed."

Masunungure said people in Zimbabwe fear law enforcement
officers and other officials. "The police are part of it," he said.
"Everyone is a part of it."

He added that he has lost confidence in the
ability of other leaders in the region to offer much
assistance.

"Mugabe is a bully," said Masunungure. "He is a freedom
fighter, and because of that, the others, like [South African President]
Mbeki, won't stand up to him."

One consolation for him is that the
current regime has not interfered with the transfer of money to his family
back home.

"My brother transfers money back for my parents and two
sisters ever few weeks," he said. "With everything that has happened
recently, we are very worried that eventually they won't get what we send
them. So far, they are doing alright."

It's almost four o'clock, and
it is time for Masunungure to go. His niece and nephew will be home from
school soon.

"My nephew struggles with maths," he said, smiling. "That is
OK though. I am happy to help him."

The Health Worker

Grace
Chouriri cares for fellow exiles because she says it makes her feel that
she's doing something good for her community.

By Jennifer Koons in London
(ZCR No. 154, 11-Jul-08)

Grace Chouriri, not her real name, laughs
bitterly when asked whether she will ever return to her native
home.

"How can I go back and crucify myself?" she asked, shaking her
head.

She will talk at length about her objections to the current regime.
But she grows quiet when asked personal details about herself and her former
life as a healthcare worker in Harare.

Eventually, she divulges
rapid-fire details, a bullet-point list of her life so far: she is the
youngest of seven children. Two brothers died of AIDS when she was younger.
She left her family's rural home for an urban life where she met and married
her husband, who she said also died of AIDS a few years after they were
married.

"I became angry at the lack of options for people who are sick
and I started to associate with people who were also angry," she says
matter-of-factly.

The "people" she refers to were members of the Movement
for Democratic Change, MDC.

She refuses to go into what kinds of
activities she participated in while she was an activist in Harare, but she
offers that "one morning I was told I had to leave for my safety. So I
left".

Nearly eight years have passed and she has created a life of
stability for herself as a soft-spoken but committed member of the MDC
community in London. Through her work with the group, she met her partner, a
man who she will describe only as "kind and hard-working".

He works
two full-time jobs, she said. They had lived with friends for several years
but last fall they moved into their own studio near West Ham in east
London.

While she said she does not personally plan to return home, she
is committed to helping those who she had to leave behind.

"I do not
wish to go back," she said. "They have ruined my country for me. I would not
be safe. But I want more for my people. [Morgan] Tsvangirai would have made
things better. He was our hope."

Tsvangirai, the MDC opposition leader
who beat Mugabe in a March election, pulled out of a June run-off because of
escalating violence.

Chouriri said many of her friends in London's
Zimbabwe activist community have stopped speaking out in recent weeks
because of concern for their own safety.

"We are definitely being
watched by Mugabe's security forces," she said. "We are being careful. But
we left our country so we wouldn't have to hide and we do not want to hide
here."

She begins to open up when asked about her plans for the
future."I have my refugee status. I want to get back to my health field,"
she said. "AIDS does not kill people so quickly in this country like it does
in mine. There is hope in this country when you are sick."

At the
moment, she is not working. She said she has tried different odd jobs over
the years but ends up losing them when she takes off too much work to care
for ill neighbours and friends.

"People know about my background," she
said. "They will come to me. They will want me to look after their children.
And I do it. It makes me feel that I am doing something good for my
community here."

She said she is not in regular contact with her family
back home but tries to send money to her parents as often as she is
able.

"They have nothing," she said. "I heard that after the March
election, two of my brothers were badly beaten. They had broken bones. And
we were grateful. Broken bones are not so bad."

She said one of her
parents' neighbours had been killed in April by a mob of men belonging to
the ruling Zanu-PF party.

"He was older than my father and they dragged
him from his home and killed him," she said.

When asked whether she
thinks her family will flee the violence, she shakes her head.

"They
were born there, and they will never leave," she said. "They did not
understand when I went to [Harare] and they did not understand when I came
to London. It is there life there. This is now my life
here."

The Campaigner

Veteran human
rights activist Rose Benton is resigned to more years of drawing attention
to abuses in home country.

By Jennifer Koons in London (ZCR No. 154,
11-Jul-08)

On June 27, life was supposed to get easier for Rose
Benton.

On that day, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was presumed to
win the presidential election in Zimbabwe, ousting President Robert Mugabe.
And after that, Benton would be able to take a break.

For almost six
years, she has coordinated the weekly gatherings of a London-based group
called the Zimbabwe Vigil. She co-founded the organisation in October 2002
in an effort to draw public attention to human rights violations in her
native country.

Every Saturday from midday to early evening, members
gather outside the Zimbabwean embassy. They sing and dance in peaceful
protest and encourage passers-by to sign various petitions relating to the
hardships back home.

Several long-time attendees arrive early for the
vigil on this bright Saturday afternoon. They greet each other warmly and
share their dismay at the current state of affairs back home.

"The
preparation will start when Rose arrives," said one woman.

Eventually, a
small brown car pulls to a stop along the side street and three men who had
been standing around hurry over to help unload what looks to be a trunk
overflowing with cardboard posters and large Zimbabwean flags.

"I need
help getting out of this car," said a woman, and one of the young men pulls
her up.

Rose Benton is ready to take charge. An assembly-line forms as
she starts passing out materials that others will then post along a metal
fence that is to become their protest pen. She grabs some tape and starts
hanging signs but keeps getting interrupted by men and women who come up to
greet her.

Then the questions start. "Where should these fliers go?" "Who
should handle the petition today?"

Benton is unfazed. She has been
doing this for many years.

"I work two full-time jobs," she said. "This
is all voluntary. I thought the election would happen and I'd have a chance
to step back. My daughter is expecting her first baby this
summer."

No one seems to know what will happen next in their native
country. But while the uncertainty remains, Benton said she will continue to
hold the vigils.

Benton said she left Zimbabwe in 1969 "because I
didn't like what as happening".

She taught history and English to
high school students before she met her husband, a British citizen who grew
up in South Africa, and the two decided to come to London."We met at a
university party in Cape Town have been married ever since," she
recalled.

Finding a job in the UK at that time proved fairly
easy

"I was a Rhodesian and I had dual citizenship," she said. "I found a
job in a research department very quickly."

She said Zimbabweans
coming to London today face far more difficult obstacles.

"When I
came, you could get your papers sorted out very fast," she said. "It is much
more difficult nowadays, particularly for black Zimbabweans who have no
ancestral help. A lot of white Zimbabweans have help from relatives. They
have grandparents who are British. Black Zimbabweans don't have
that."

She said she has two sisters still living in Zimbabwe and it was
with their encouragement that she got involved in advocacy work.

"I
was chatting with my sisters in 2000 and they were saying that things were
going very badly and they asked me to do something from here," she said. "It
was really quite difficult to find anyone doing anything here at that
time.

"There were a couple of demonstrations out in front of the embassy.
They were really small - just a handful of people. And then someone said
there was a regular forum on Monday night. I started going to
that."

Eventually she was asked to take a leadership role in what would
become the weekly vigils.

"I never meant to get so heavily involved,"
she said. "Somehow or other you can't drop it. Once it's started it has to
continue."

She said the number of attendees each week grew as the date
for the run-off election neared, but she is not sure how people will react
with the current turn of events.

"People are anxious," she said. "We
may see even more involvement. It's just hard to predict."

What is
certain is that she will eventually need to train someone to take on a
greater leadership role within the organisation.

"I have to slow down and
look at what other people can do," she said. "You never want to see that
fail. The vigil has become a much bigger thing. There are far more e-mails
coming in with ideas and requests. But it's funny how few of them offer
help."